REVIEW – MAREK (Cold Fury Hockey, #11) by Sawyer Bennett

When the Carolina Cold Fury’s hottest young star gets blindsided by an ex with a scandalous secret, it’s game on.

“One of the best voices in contemporary romance.”—New York Times bestselling author Lauren Layne

Marek Fabritis is used to delivering blows, not receiving them. But when he gets tipped off by an anonymous email about his ex-girlfriend, the news leaves him ice cold—and it’s not because Gracen Moore is getting married to a total jerk. It’s the fact that Marek has a three-year-old daughter he never knew about. Now he’s going back home, not to play knight in shining armor but to make damn sure that no man takes what’s his. For the first time, there might be something more important than hockey.

Gracen Moore has always loved Marek. That’s why she let him go, so he could pursue a career in the NHL. And that’s why she never told him about Lilly. Only now does Gracen realize that she made an unforgivable mistake. But is that any reason for Marek to crash her wedding and make an epic scene? If the spark that still smolders between them is to be trusted, maybe. Still, Gracen’s not getting her hopes up. Because she knows better than anyone that appearances aren’t always what they seem. . . .

*****Patty’s Review*****

*****FOUR STARS*****
{ARC Generously Provided by Author}

I can never allow myself to forget what caused the rift between Marek and me in the first place He left me. He decided he didn’t love me anymore. He wanted a life without me. A life with other things that weren’t me.

The Cold Fury Hockey still remains one of my favorite Sawyer Bennett series! I can’t believe it’s been four years since “ALEX” was released and we’re up to the eleventh book!! I hope it never ends. I was worried for a while that MAREKwas going to be a “let down” for me but luckily, I was won over towards the end. Marek is not a likable character. For most of the story, he walks around with a huge chip on his shoulder and is a complete ass! He is definitely not my favorite Cold Fury player, BUT, this one is filled with Ms. Bennett’s delectably steamy scenes and I’m a sucker for a good “second chance romance” with a guaranteed HEA.

Marek and Gracen were high school sweethearts and madly in love. Several years later as Marek is graduating from college, he gets recruited by an NHL team. He didn’t want to be tied down and so he leaves Gracen behind…brokenhearted. Fast forward three years later and the two find themselves in each other’s lives again when Marek goes back home to stop his first love from making the biggest mistake of her life by marrying the wrong guy. Marek is in for a huge surprise when he finds out that he is the father of a precocious three-year-old little girl. He’s beyond furious with Gracen for keeping Lilly a secret from him thereby cheating him out of being a father to her from the very beginning. He brings Gracen and Lilly back home with him to Raleigh so that he can spend some time with his daughter.

For almost three-quarters of the story, Marek behaves like a petulant man-child. He’s often belligerent and cruel to Gracen and throws the fact that she deprived him of three years of being a father every chance he gets. It was getting old really fast. But, these two have incredible sexual chemistry and they have a hard time staying away from each other. Just when things start to look promising Marek goes and messes everything up yet again with his utter stupidity. He’s one of the most clueless characters in this entire series. While Marek walks around not really knowing his true feelings, Gracen has never stopped loving him but won’t allow herself to have hope because he obliterated her heart once before. She’d never be able to survive that kind of pain again.

Will they ever be able to move beyond the feelings of hurt and betrayal from the past?